The federal budget worth more than Rs 9,000 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23 has been unveiled today. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail presented the budget in the National Assembly.
Addressing the National Assembly, the minister started his speech by pointing out “mistakes by the previous government”. “Each year, the budget was presented by a different person,” he said.
The minister said that due to the previous government, the IMF programme, which should have ended this year, got suspended in February, and basic reforms that should have taken place in 2019 were not implemented.
The poor-income group needs to be supported, he said and added this group buys goods that are produced in the country.
“Bringing economic stability is our top priority. The basic problem of our economy is that a growth rate of 3-4% doesn t help our growing population, whereas a growth rate of 5-6% leads to a current account deficit.”
He criticised former PM Imran Khan by saying that he never cared for the poor for he himself said that “keeping a check on potato and tomato prices is not a PM’s job”. The minister said that Budget 2022-23 will focus on providing facilities to farmers growing crops that produce cooking oil, like corn and sunflower, so that the country doesn’t have to import palm oil, which is touching a record high in international market.
According to Miftah Ismail, the PTI-led govt took loans of Rs20,000 billion during their tenure. “This is 80% of the total loans taken since the time of Liaquat Ali Khan.” This was because they spent more than they earned, he added.
